Media planning for frequency versus reach

Media planning for frequency versus reach

Achieving the perfect balance.

Posted - 22 September, 2014

There are plenty of variables that need to be taken into consideration when creating the best possible media plan. From the budget assigned to the campaign to the target audience and the (always) unique goals of the organisation for whom the media plan is being created. Even within a single brand, goals change from campaign to campaign – ergo no two plans are the same.

The goals are of special interest to the media planner because they have such a large impact on the way the plan will end up being written and then put into action.

In a perfect world, every media plan would reach a large number of people in the target demographic, a large amount of times – achieving great reach and great frequency. But in reality, budget constraints mean prioritisation is the name of the game. Of course a media planner will often include elements of both, by including different formats (part of the ‘media mix’) that are better suited to frequency or reach in a single plan. But it is still worth a look at some of the broad outcomes from different goals.

The job of the media planner is to work with the organisation to determine the goals and to recommend media that would best suit its needs. As noted above, more often than not it is a balance, a matter of fine tuning the goals into the (almost) perfect plan.

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